Slings and Arrows - Season 2

Overview

lings and Arrows is a Canadian TV series set at the fictional New Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean festival similar to the real-world Stratford Festival. The program stars Paul Gross, Stephen Ouimette and Martha Burns.

The blackly comic series first aired on Canada's Movie Central and The Movie Network channels in 2003, and received acclaim in the United States when it was shown on the Sundance Channel two years later. Three seasons of six episodes each were filmed in total, with the final season airing in Canada in the summer of 2006 and in the United States in early 2007.

Slings and Arrows was created and written by former The Kids in the Hall member Mark McKinney, playwright and actress Susan Coyne, and comedian Bob Martin. All three appear in the series as well. The entire series was directed by Peter Wellington.

Episodes

“Slings & Arrows’” second season revisits the comically dysfunctional New Burbage Theater Festival, under the artistic direction of Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross). Tennant’s triumph with “Hamlet” has done nothing to solve the theater’s financial woes, and now he has no choice but to mount a new production of the most jinxed play in theatrical history: “Macbeth.” Ellen's boyfriend also proposes to her, but thanks to Geoffrey's interference, she declines.

It's Christmas and Ellen, enjoying her re-kindled love with Geoffrey, decides to celebrate in style - but fails miserably.

Meanwhile Geoffrey struggles with The Scottish Play, a fact that isn't helped by Anna's discovery of eight boxes' worth of production notes left by Oliver and the arrival of the star of the show, egomanical actor Henry Breedlove.

Richard, running out of options to solve the festival's financial dilemma, decides to apply for a government credit. There's a catch - the money must be used for 're-branding'. So Richard employs a hot new advertising agency to come up with a new, youthful image for New Burbage.

Anna has her hands full with a bunch of teenage interns.

And to top it off, Oliver (or rather his ghost) returns to the stage in the middle of an elementary school production of Macbeth.

The curse of Macbeth seems to work its dark magic on the festival. Geoffrey struggles with Oliver over staging, the guest director for Romeo and Juliet breaks her neck falling off the stage - the only one available to replace her is Geoff's arch-enemy Darren Nichols( Don McKellar) - and Ellen finds out she's being audited by Revenue Canada.

Richard is shocked to find that Sanjay Rainier, head of Froghammer Advertising, has launched a controversial campaign to re-brand the festival. Only, the regular subscribers are not amused and cancel in droves.

Meanwhile, Henry Breedlove (Geraint Wyn Davies) undermines Geoffrey's direction of the play and manages to draw Ellen to his side, which is due to the fact that Eleen is losing Geoffrey to the ghost of his former boss.

After a big fight with Ellen, Geoffrey has moved into a storage room at the theater. He is still fighting both his actors and Oliver who refuse to accept his ideas for the play.

In the meantime, Ellen has to find a way to get her financial records straight for the audit. She brings in her brother-in-law to help her - with unforeseen consequences.

Darren Nichols' idea of staging Romeo and Juliet doesn't sit well with his actors either. Sick of improvisation exercises and portraying signifiers instead of young people in love, Sarah (Joanne Kelly) and Patrick (David Alpay) ask Geoffrey to help them, who secretly coaches them since he promised Nichols not to 'interfere' with his production.

Anna starts a romance with an author whose new play is the subject of the festival's workshop.

Meanwhile, the controversial advertising campaign has the festival in more financial trouble than ever but Richard, totally under the influence of Sanjay Rainier, refuses to change course. So Macbeth goes into previews with hardly an audience. At the end of the evening Geoffrey fires Henry Breedlove for ignoring his direction and the festival has to face a season without its star magnet.

Ellen's audit is not going well and she is shocked to hear that a settlement will be forced on her if she can't hand in all of her records on time.

Sarah and Patrick, after an 'intense' nighttime rehersal, find themselves in bed together, which is odd since Patrick is openly gay. Still, Romeo and Juliet is far from being ready to open.

Writer Lionel Train uses Anna as his main inspiration for his new play. Come opening night she doesn't feel flattered anymore as she sees her darkest secrets revealed to the audience.

The production of Macbeth is also faced with the dilemma of having to replace Henry Breedlove, who was the main attraction.

But the understudy proves himself despite personal problems and stage fright. Nevertheless, at the end of the evening Ellen asks a reluctant Geoffrey to ask Henry to come back. The latter, with the help of seasoned actor Brian Cabot (Leon Pownall), has come to the decision to ask Geoffrey for the same thing. But when Geoffrey asks first, Henry feels vindicated and arrogantly informs Geoffrey that he will play Macbeth - but his own way.

But all is not well in the end which finds Richard close to a nervous breakdown when Sanjay is arrested by the RCMP and is found to be a con-artist. With the government funds gone and no new sponsors in sight, New Burbage seems doomed.

All's well that ends well, or so it seems at the beginning. Richard, sure he will have to resign as General Manager, gloomily heads over to the theater only to find that hords of teenagers clog the box office to get tickets for Macbeth. In fact, the show is nearly sold out. He at least can face opening night in good spirits.

Not so Geoffrey, who still has to deal with an actor refusing to take his direction. So he decides to put in some last minute changes and teach Henry Breedlove a lesson he won't soon forget. His plan works and he is rewarded by a stellar performance of his cast as well as a black eye from Henry Breedlove's fist.

All that's left to do is save Romeo and Juliet from total disaster. Giving his most dramatic performance in years, Geoffrey convinces Darren Nichols to rethink his concept and stage the play as the desperate love story it is. And another pair of lovers finds themselves re-united in the end, although not in death.